Beethoven: Bagatelles (6), Op. 126

Following critically acclaimed traversals of Mozart’s Sonatas and J.S. Bach’s groundbreaking Goldberg Variations, Daniel-Ben Pienaar scales the heights of Beethoven’s monumental Diabelli Variations, complemented by the six Bagatelles, Op. 126.

Daniel-Ben Pienaar “makes the Goldbergs sound more like that other supreme set of variations, Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, than any other pianist has.” An appropriate observation from BBC Music Magazine, as Pienaar follows his acclaimed recording of Bach’s groundbreaking Goldberg Variations (AV2235), by scaling the heights of Beethoven’s monumental 33 Variations on a waltz by Anton Diabelli. Variously called “the greatest set of variations ever written” and “the greatest of all piano works”, this late work is one of Beethoven’s most adventurous, suitably challenging for Pienaar’s technical wizardry and probing intellect. He compliments the set with Beethoven’s last great work for solo piano, the Bagatelles, Op. 126, which themselves are no mere trifles. As with his previous releases, Pienaar contributes in-depth notes which delve deeply into the music’s enigmas.

Combined with his sometimes provocative, always enlightening interpretations, Pienaar has once again created a highly satisfying release for the committed classical listener.

Following his highly acclaimed Beethoven ‘Moonlight’, ‘Pathétique’ and ‘Waldstein’ Sonatas release, Hyperion’s Gramophone-award-winning artist Steven Osborne turns his talents to Beethoven’s complete Bagatelles. Though the composer himself referred to these thirty short piano works, which he penned throughout his life, as ‘trifles’, these are nonetheless trifles from the mind of a genius. In this polished album, Osborne lends his remarkable artistry to everything from the Six Bagatelles of Op 126, which at times occupy the same rarefied spiritual world as the late quartets and were the very last works Beethoven ever wrote for the piano, to the composer’s most famous stand-alone piano piece, the mysterious little A minor Bagatelle known to all the world as ‘Für Elise’.

Gary Cooper: "The decision to use a historic Viennese instrument for this recording - built in the very year Beethoven completed his Diabelli Variations – is, in one sense, self-explanatory. Newly & magnificently restored by Edwin Beunk, the Walter und Sohn grand piano featured here is both a beautiful & charming instrument. In approaching the timeless, expansive sound world of Beethoven's late, great works, any piano is constantly tested; historic instruments not far off two hundred years old additionally so! This is the first commercial recording, to my knowledge, which attempts to place this particular masterpiece firmly in the sound-world of the early 1820s, when it was conceived and first played."

In his extensive liner notes, based on many letters and historical documents, Gary Cooper wonders why Beethoven chose to continue composing, after the onset of deafness. (...) ‘I cannot imagine that I am alone in feeling both puzzled & amazed by this, as well as gratitude that he did so, since many of his very finest, most sublime works stem from this later period. (...) The key word here is imagination: while we imagine Beethoven should be pitied, I also imagine he pitied others since, through deafness, he was no longer prey to the prosaic nature of general conversation which he abhorred above all else; and in this new-found world of profound silence, his fecund imagination created nothing but unadulterated music, without reference to anyone but himself, and his maker. All great art, in Beethoven's own philosophy, is simply a process of a 'returning to the divine when achieved'.

The Canadian musician Glenn Gould was undoubtedly one of the greatest pianists of all time. To mark the 75th anniversary of his birth, and the 25th anniversary of his death, Sony BMG Masterworks presents this seminal artist’s vinyl recordings as re-mastered CDs, designed to replicate the exact artwork of the original gramophone records in miniaturised form. Already issued as part of an 80-CD box set (88697130942), these albums are now being made available individually.